Texans boost natural gas use for driving, but not for power

HOUSTON — Texans increased their use of natural gas to fuel cars and trucks in 2013, but reduced its use to power lights and appliances, according to new federal data.

Natural gas used for vehicle fuel in Texas jumped by more than 16 percent between 2012 and 2013, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show. Meanwhile, less electricity was generated from gas in 2013, down by nearly 7 percent.

That reversed a trend seen in recent years asutilities shifted from coal-fired to natural gas-fired power plants to take advantage of low-cost natural gas, with its price in the Untied States plunging below $2 per million British thermal units. But natural gas prices rebounded in 2013, rising to about $4.23 per million British thermal units by December, making it less competitive against coal.

Still, electricity is a much larger end use for natural gas than vehicle fuel. Nearly 115 billion cubic feet of natural gas was used to generate electricity in Texas in December. By comparison, cars and trucks used less than 0.2 percent of that amount of natural gas — about 205 million cubic feet in December.

About half of the natural gas consumed in Texas is used by the industrial sector, which increased its consumption by nearly 3 percent in 2013.

About Fuel Fix

FuelFix.com is your daily must-read source for news and analysis on the energy business. Anchored by business reporters at the Houston Chronicle and other Hearst Newspapers, Fuel Fix incorporates blogs by energy experts, market updates, useful data and a real-time summary of the top ideas, hottest stories and latest news in the oil, gas and energy industries.

Browse previous blog posts by month and year of entry. You'll see all the posts for that time period.